The Chophouse is an unassuming restaurant that is tucked away off the slanted Bligh Street in the heart of Sydney’s business district. Once you step in, you can feel the unconventional vibe of the restaurant in their decor which has some macabre touches playing on their association with meat and slaughter, such as the animal skulls hanging from the ceiling of the bar.

The whole restaurant is very dim and cavernous with high ceilings and arches which give the impression that the Chophouse may have once been some sort of abattoir, since it also has an industrial atmosphere due to the peeling paint on the walls. I’m sure that’s the authentic slaughterhouse feel that they were aiming for but luckily all the furniture and cutlery were spick and span.

We had a bit of a mix up with our booking time but the manager was very accommodating and we only had a short wait at the bar before we were ushered to our table. I ordered a bellini which was very sweet, consisting of sparkling white wine mixed with a scoop of peach sorbet which gradually melted and gave a lovely touch of fruity honey to the drink.

Bellini $18

We started with some complimentary sour dough bread served with butter on a cute plate bearing the Chophouse insignia and it was appropriately soft, great with the butter and sprinkles of salt or pepper which came with it for you to season to taste. That being said, I’m not actually much of a fan of sourdough in general, so I was eagerly awaiting my mains to be served.

We had originally planned to get two steaks but spotted the Chophouse Mixed Grill Platter to share between 2, which was perfect for us to get a good selection of different types of meat that the Chophouse had to offer and we were not disappointed at all.

Chophouse Mixed Grill Platter $59

It doesn’t look like a huge amount of food when the platter is first brought out but once we start nibbling away we realise that it is a LOT of meat to get through (especially when one of the diners is yours truly, notorious for getting full very quickly). We are spoilt for choice by the platter, it offers a couple of spicy merguez sausages, boerwurst (another sausage), meat skewers, dry aged rump cap, some onion rings and grilled tomatoes to satisfy our vegie intake for the day. It was also served with a small pot of BBQ sauce and little tongs to handle the food with.

We dig in to the sausages first and they were very flavoursome, not too spicy but just enough to give the meat a bit of a kick and were nicely grilled. The boerwurst is slightly more tough, but not actually sure what type of meat it is (maybe pork). Then we each take a few cubes of meat off the skewers (there’s a couple to share) and the grilled beef is amazing – it melts in your mouth and is just the right balance between being slightly chewy but still soft enough. The rump is carved into small slices ready for us to share and it is not as delicious as the beef skewer but still decently tender, tastes better when dipped in the BBQ sauce. The onion rings were also fantastic – light and crunchy batter and the slices of onions within were still a bit juicy despite being fried.

The service at Chophouse is very attentive, we had a nice waitress who is “watching us like a hawk” (her words, not mine). Every time we finished our dishes, she would come over to clear our table and she was also very obliging when we requested extra mustard – bringing us a little plate with Hot English and Dijon mustard. Both went well with the meats and provides a good alternative if you don’t like the BBQ sauce that comes with it.

Icecream, 3 scoops for $12.90

We finish off our meal with a dessert of 3 scoops of house churned icecream – one scoop each of fig and frangelico, vanilla and green tea which are served with some broken pieces of real honeycomb (nothing like what’s inside a Crunchie…) and a small pot of chocolate sauce. We don’t even need the sauce as the icecream is so fragant and creamy on its own – especially the fig and frangelico, where you can taste the hints of hazelnut and sweet fruit.

The green tea was also nice but a bit more creamy than I am used to having (especially since the night before I had eaten at Suminoya buffet where you can order as many scoops of green tea icecream as you like). The gamechanger is the honeycomb, you can break it up into little pieces and eat it together with the icecream and it really brings out the sweetness of the icecream but adds a touch of caramelised honey flavour to it. A simple ingenious touch to bring humble icecream to a whole different level of enjoyment.

If you like good meat, definitely head to Chophouse for some tender cubes of meat that will give you a bit of a foodgasm in your mouth – my friend is a self-professed meat connoisseur and he was blown away by the quality of the meat here.

Who are we?

Excuse Me Waiter is a documented food adventure run by two hungry Gen Y food fanatics DK & Yvn. We can often be found roaming Sydney in search of interesting foods from food courts to high-end restaurants.
Read more about us here.